Lawmaker talks about sprinkler legislation a year after deadly blaze

More than 50 years ago, on a cold February night, a fire swept through a Missouri nursing home, killing 72 residents. In the wake of the deadly fire at Warrenton, Mo., in 1957, legislators vowed to pass laws requiring sprinkler systems in all nursing homes and other institutions.

But somehow, as other matters came before the Missouri Legislature, those promises got pushed back.

Fast forward more than 20 years to 1979, when a blaze at a residential care center killed 25 people in Farmington, Mo.

Yet it wasn’t until this year, after a blaze claimed the lives of 11 people in Anderson, that laws requiring sprinkler systems in all new nursing home construction and homes undergoing a major renovation, and retrofitted into nursing homes with 25 or more residents, passed the Missouri House and Senate. This was because of the efforts of an area lawmaker, Rep. Kevin Wilson of Neosho.

Hours after the Anderson blaze, Wilson vowed that fixing the problem would be his “No. 1 priority” in the next legislative session, which was then just over a month away.

“The whole thought process was we had this fire in 1957 which took the lives of 72 people in Warrenton, and people said ‘We have to do something about this,’ ” Wilson said in an interview last week. “Here we were, years later, with a fire that killed 11 people. I couldn’t let that pass without doing something to make these homes as safe as they could be. We just couldn’t allow more time to go by without fixing the problems.”

Wilson’s measure, signed into law last May by Gov. Matt Blunt, calls the addition of staff to assist the state fire marshal’s office in checking nursing homes to see if they meet compliance standards. These additions should be made by late 2008, Wilson said.

Other parts of the bill would mandate the addition of smoke detectors and heat rise indicators which indicate spikes in temperatures, and would be enacted by 2012, the same timeframe as set for sprinklers. Heat rise indicators may have given Anderson Guest House residents an earlier warning as to the fire.

While the cause of the Anderson Guest House fire may never be fully known, it is believed the fire started in the northwest corner of the building’s attic, where a technician had shorted out a heating and air system in order to repair it.

Bill Zieres, the state’s deputy fire marshal, told the Neosho Daily News last November the attic had about 6 inches of blown cellulose insulation. Investigators believe the fire smoldered for some time before breaking through the ceiling into the living areas.

The building that housed Anderson Guest House was built in 1982 and housed a grocery store for about a year. Afterward, the 150- by 55-foot building became a nursing home complex. In the mid-1990s, the Anderson Guest House was formed.

Wilson said loans for the entire cost of installing or retrofitting sprinkler systems were available from the state.

According to the bill, some facilities may not qualify for the loans. For instance, nursing homes which have a total reimbursement for those eligible for Medicaid of $52 or more a day may not qualify, but those which did qualify would have five years to pay back the loan. Nursing homes having a reimbursement rate of between $49 and $52 a day per resident would have eight years to pay off the loan, while those with reimbursement levels between $48 and $49 a day would have 10 years.

Facilities with reimbursement rates under $48 would not have payments or interest due until their rates exceeded $48. All facilities would have to have a complete fire alarm system tied into central dispatch, the fire department, or an alarm company, Wilson said. And according to the bill, manual pull stations would be located at each exit and attendant’s station. Wilson said three state agencies — the Department of Health and Human Services, the state fire marshal’s office and the Department of Mental Health — would be responsible for monitoring nursing homes to see if they are in compliance with the new law.

Additionally, these agencies will report to the state Legislature at the end of session next year.

Wilson’s measure sailed through the House by a 158-0 vote, and an amended version passed the Senate 32-1.

In a column dated June 4 for publication in Missouri newspapers, state Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, represents the 25th Senate district of Wayne, Ripley, Butler, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Dunklin counties, praised the measure.

“This new law won’t bring back the 11 people who died in the Anderson Guest House fire, but maybe it will prevent the next tragedy from happening,” he wrote. “It was the least we lawmakers could do to protect our citizens.”

Last Wednesday, Wilson said he could not have gotten the measure passed without the help of lawmakers such as Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, House speaker Rod Jetton and Floor Leader Tom Dempsey.

“What it took is somebody pushing it and not taking no for an answer,” Wilson said. “A lot of people did that this year. A lot of people saw the priority of this and pushed this thing along. If we didn’t have the speaker and the majority Floor Leader in this, it wouldn’t have passed. The governor, obviously, was behind this 100 percent, as was the Senate Floor Leader, the Senate President, and Jack Goodman. These people thought it was a good idea, and supported it.”

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